2023 in review

Another review of the year (here is 2022 and 2021), this time a bit late.

In 2023, I…

• welcomed the lab’s first postdoc, Philippa Johnson;
• started co-supervising Sarah Kusch, who will investigate pro-environmental behavior and cognitive effort at Ghent University;
• was proud to see our lab’s projects presented at Cognitive Computational Neuroscience in Oxford, and NVP in Egmond aan Zee (see here, here and here);
• published my opinion piece on academia & the climate crisis, and gave several workshops on the topic;
• co-authored several preprints coming out of my postdoc time in the International Brain Laboratory;
• applied for the Young Academy Leiden again, and was accepted this time;
• took a course on mentoring organised at Princeton, and am still meeting regularly with a great mentoring circle;
• taught courses on cognitive modelling, cognitive neuroscience and social dynamics;
• read eclectically on systems neuroscience, mathematical psychology, dynamical systems in cognitive science, critical transitions, and social movements;
• saw my beloved science Twitter collapse, and am attempting a fresh start on BlueSky;
• participated in two hiring committees for the first time (turns out making good policies on such things is quite hard);
• co-wrote a letter to Leiden University’s board, calling for an end to collaborations with the fossil fuel industry;
• brought my toddler to a scientific workshop for the first time, and struggled to find a good balance between research trips and family life;
• after losing my dad, learned the hard way how exhausting it is to grieve; that the administration after someone dies is a part-time job in and of itself; what a privilege it has been to have a mentor from another scientific field; and how lucky I am to have such supportive friends, family, lab members and colleagues.

Here’s to a 2024 with more mental calm, enough time to spend with the people most important to me, several exciting papers to write, insight and wisdom.